-Summiya Yasmeen (Bengaluru)

Maffioletti: great opportunity

Claudio Maffioletti is the Mumbai-based CEO and Secretary General of the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IICCI, estb.1966), an association of 750 companies and professionals promoting trade and economic collaboration between India and Italy.

Newspeg. Maffioletti was in Bengaluru on March 28 to inaugurate IICCI’s southern region office in the garden city. IICCI has a network of five offices across India with 30 employees.

Among IICCI’s flagship projects is Minerva — The Italian Education Hub — an initiative to enable cooperation and collaboration between Italy’s top-ranked universities, vocational training institutes and education institutions in India. And also to facilitate the admission of Indian students into Italian higher education institutions (HEIs). Currently, Minerva represents seven Italian HEIs including Humanitas University (medicine, Milan); Milano Fashion Institute (Milan); Accademia Costume e Moda (Rome and Milan), and ALMA — The International School of Italian Cuisine (Parma). Currently, 1,000 Indian students are enrolled in Italian HEIs.

“In 2018, then Italian prime minister H.E. Giuseppe Conte signed several agreements with prime minister Narendra Modi in Delhi. Among them was the establishment of Minerva by IICCI under patronage of the Italian Embassy in Delhi. Minerva’s prime objective is to promote Italian HEIs in India and support them to provide higher education and vocational training to Indian students. I am pleased to report that since then, we have facilitated the admission of over 100 Indian students into Italian universities and enabled several Italian HEIs to sign partnership agreements with Indian universities,” says Maffioletti.

History. A philosophy and business management graduate of Parma University (Italy) and City University, London, Maffioletti began his career in 2003 at Institut de France, Loire Valley as project manager followed by a three-year (2004-07) stint in Italy’s highly regarded think tank, Institute for International Political Studies, Milan. In 2007, Maffioletti was appointed general manager of IICCI, Mumbai and promoted to CEO and Secretary-General in 2015. Since then, the membership of IICCI has grown to 750, and Indo-Italian trade to €15 billion (Rs.1.3 lakh crore).

Direct talk. “India and Italy are both ancient civilizations with numerous commonalities. Through the Minerva project, we want to promote education ties between our two countries. Italy hosts several ancient universities with excellent global reputation for fashion design, hospitality and tourism, architecture and medical education with a growing number offering English language study programmes. Italian HEIs also offer excellent vocational training and skill development programmes in manufacturing and agriculture. Moreover in Italy, we have a long tradition of artisanal apprenticeships which would greatly benefit Indian students in vocational education,” says Maffioletti.

Future plans. Maffioletti is excited about bourgeoning trade and education ties with India with vocational education and skilling being a special focus area. “With skills training for the manufacturing sector being accorded high importance in India currently, we believe there’s great opportunity for Indian students to avail excellent training and hands-on industry experience in Italy. We are also looking into the possibility of starting dual degree programmes with Indian HEIs, and under NEP 2020, an Italian university may soon have a campus in India,” says Maffioletti.

Benvenuto!

Also read: Italian proficiency opportunities